CALABAZA

Calabaza is a pumpkin like squash that is especially popular in Caribbean foodways. It is featured in Haiti’s Soup Joumou eaten on January 1st in celebration of Independence Day. The enslaved people in Haiti lead the worlds first successful slave revolution resulting in Haiti becoming independent from France. While enslaved, they were prohibited from eating soup Joumou, in Liberation eating soup Joumou became a symbol of freedom. In the Caribbean Calabaza shows up in markets as a dark green color because a certain amount of cold is required to trigger the plant into making the color change. The Caribbean doesn’t get cold enough to trigger that change, but its no problem for us here in Detroit. We grew this Calabaza in our three sisters demo garden that we call ‘Recognition’